F.C. BATE

Football Club BATE Borisov is the best Belarusian club which successfully represents Belarus in European football tournaments. In 2018, BATE became Belarusian champion for the 15th time (previously it happened in 1999, 2002 and every year from 2006 to 2017).

Founded: 1973, 1996 (the team’s revival after a 12-year hiatus, founding of the club)

Milestones:

BATE played its first international match in 1999. The UEFA Cup debut was unlucky for the club as they lost to Russia’s Lokomotiv Moskva.

In 2001 BATE met AC Milan in the UEFA Cup First Round. The Belarusian team lost both legs (0-2, 0-4). After the first leg BATE’s striker Vitaly Kutuzov signed a five-year deal with Milan, which was the biggest transfer in the history of the Belarusian football.

In 2002 BATE qualified into the UEFA Intertoto Cup Third Round after defeating TSV Munchen 1860 (1-0 away, and 4-0 at home), but then lost to FC Bologna (0-2, 0-0).

BATE made its maiden voyage to the UEFA Champions League group stage in the 2008/09 season. The Belarusian team faced Spain’s Real Madrid, Italy’s Juventus and Russia’s Zenit. BATE lost their first match against Real 0-2 but produced a kind of sensation on the next matchday holding the European top club Juventus to a 2-2 draw and salvaging a point at Zenit (1-1). BATE were not disappointed with further 0-1 and 0-2 defeats against Real and Zenit respectively as they managed to take points from the last Juventus encounter drawing it 0-0.

In 2009 BATE entered the Europa League group stage to play against Portugal’s Benfica, Greece’s AEK and England’s Everton. After two losses against Benfica and Everton BATE produced a quality performance against AEK (2-1, 2-2). The pinnacle of that Europa League campaign for BATE was a remarkable 1-0 away victory against Everton at Goodison Park, Liverpool, England, which earned head coach Viktor Goncharenko’s side the third place in their group.

In 2010 BATE partook in the Europa League group stage for the second consecutive year. This time the Belarusians did an even better job being pitted against Ukraine’s Dinamo Kyiv, AZ Alkmaar from the Netherlands and Moldova’s Sheriff. BATE beat Sheriff 1-0 and 3-1, outclassed AZ Alkmaar 4-1 and drew the Dinamo Kyiv tie 2-2. Two loses in the end of the group stage put BATE on the second spot in their section and saw them progressing to the Europa League Round of 32, the club’s best achievement ever. At this stage BATE were stopped by France’s Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) who won the two-match tie on the away goals rule though BATE drew both of those games (2-2 at home and 0-0 away).

In the 2011/12 season BATE reached the Champions League group stage for the second time in club’s history. Being drawn against Spain’s Barcelona, Italy’s Milan and the Czech Viktoria Plzen BATE failed to earn a victory and could only hold Viktoria Plzen and Milan to two 1-1 draws and came in the fourth spot in their section.

In the 2012/13 season BATE reached the UEFA Champions League group stage for the third time. BATE’s group F opponents were Germany’s Bayern Munich, Spain’s Valencia and France’s Lille. Viktor Goncharenko’s side got off to a great start celebrating two sensational victories against Lille away (3-1) and Bayern at home (3-1) but finished the group in the third spot after four consecutive defeats from Valencia (0-3, 2-4), Lille (0-2) and Bayern Munich (1-4).